Effects of mass transfer on a resonance instability in the laminar boundary layer flow over a rotating-disk

Abstract

Direct spatial resonance phenomenon occurring in the viscous incompressible boundary layer flow due to a rotating-disk is investigated in this paper based on the linear stability theory. The possible effects of suction and injection are explored on the direct spatial resonance instability mechanism detected earlier in the case of zero-suction. This instability leads to an algebraic growth of disturbances while the flow is yet in the laminar regime and this in turn, may initiate the non-linearity and transition, competing with the unboundedly growing time-amplified perturbations. In line with the physical intuition, results show that suction delays the onset of resonance instability by increasing the critical Reynolds number, whereas it is enhanced by the presence of injection. The critical parameter for direct spatial resonance instability always precedes the onset value for absolute instability mechanism, after a comparison with the previous work. Therefore, in the case of suction, the onset parameter is close to the transition value as determined from the earlier experimental observations. It is further examined the inviscid nature of both absolute as well as direct spatial resonance instabilities when suction or injection is applied through the disk, and is demonstrated that these instability mechanisms are not in any way an artifact of the parallel flow approximation assumed during the linearization of viscous incompressible stability equations.